Appreciating the View
by Kizmet
Summary: Road to the Future" sidestory: A bit of B/V fluff, post-GT.


**Appreciating the View**

**Author's Note: **This is a side story for "Road to the Future". A little B/V fluff for the purposes of clarifying where I'm diverging from cannon with regards to Vegeta's post-GT appearance... And because even a weak excuse is a good reason for dwelling on/drooling over Vegeta. :-)

* * *

Bulma let the papers she'd been reading fall to her lap and sat up a bit straighter as she watched her husband of the last twenty-eight years stride across their bedroom.

Vegeta toed off his boots then lined them up neatly beneath a chair. He hung the leather vest he'd taken to wearing over the back of the chair. Bulma found herself smiling both at the things that had changed about him and at those that never would.

When Vegeta had first moved into Capsule Corps, he'd 'made himself at home' by getting rid of everything that made it less than sterilely neat. Bulma hadn't ever been particularly orderly when it came to her personal space and after they began sharing a room she'd tried to convince Vegeta to loosen up a bit.

Bulma grinned at the ripple of muscles as Vegeta shrugged off the maroon muscle shirt and tossed it across the room... to land squarely in the hamper. That had been the extent of their compromise, after nearly three decades Vegeta could _look_ totally casual while being anally neat. For her half of the compromise Bulma made sure that her own clothes didn't end up strewn across the bedroom floor, and Vegeta didn't look inside her closets. Messes he didn't know about couldn't bother him.

While Vegeta's habits, in this regard, had barely changed at all, his choice in clothing had changed radically in the last year. Ever since Vegeta had come to live on the planet his preferences in clothing, apart from battle armor and training clothes, had been extremely conservative: slacks, long sleeved tee-shirts or button down shirts, generally in a dark shade of blue. Or at least that had been the case until their daughter had taken it upon herself to start critiquing her father's wardrobe.

In the privacy of her head Bulma had dubbed Vegeta's new style as his mid-life crisis clothes. Her eyes strayed to the leather pants that clung tightly to his butt and thighs... not that she was complaining mind you. They'd be celebrating Vegeta's seventieth birthday in a few months but a person could search the world over and be hard pressed to find more than a handful of twenty-somethings with a body even half as good as Vegeta's.

When Bulma first started noticing how much older she looked; especially in comparison to her husband's unchanging appearance; it had bothered her a great deal. No matter that she looked damn good for her age, she couldn't pass for thirty anymore, not the way Vegeta could. But despite her wishes the years kept going by, and Vegeta never stopped looking at her with blatant lust in his eyes. Eventually Bulma realized he never would stop wanting her and it didn't seem so important anymore. Bulma's smile softened. And sometimes, when it was just the two of them, Vegeta would even let his expression reflect the love he felt for her. It had taken so many years for him to be able to admit to that emotion.

Gingerly Vegeta began the process of extricating himself from the leather pants, a process which was complicated by the presence of his newly regenerate tail. When Bulma had used the Bluntz Wave Generator to help Vegeta force his body ascend to Super Saiyan Four despite his lack of tail, that tail had regenerated itself. After Vegeta had used up too much energy to maintain SSJ4 any longer his body had reverted to the base-template dictated by his genetics. His tail stayed and his hair was returned to it's natural length. However, Vegeta's newly grown tail was as sensitive as a child's and he hadn't had the time to correct that vulnerability yet. Leather was an unforgiving material. The combination of those two facts made getting out of the pants without kinking or otherwise abusing his tail a delicate business.

"What are you looking at?" Vegeta demanded with a scowl to cover his embarrassment.

Bulma smiled. "Just enjoying the view." She let her appreciation of his body fill her face and voice.

Vegeta flushed to the roots of his dark hair.

'So cute,' Bulma thought. It always amused her to see how easily her tough warrior prince could turn shy.

"Oh?" Vegeta asked, still blushing but also preening under Bulma's gaze.

Bulma rolled over onto her stomach and let her feet kick playfully in the air. "Oh yeah," she confirmed. "In fact, I think you should finish getting rid of those silly pants and get over here so I can enjoy 'the view' from closer up."

"Once and a while you do have good ideas," Vegeta stated as he finished shedding the pants.

"Once and a while!" Bulma squawked. Her eyes lit up with fire as she hopped off the bed to confront Vegeta more directly.

He caught her around the waist and pulled her to him. "So predictable," he said with a rumbling laugh that made Bulma's toes curl in delight.

"Not exactly complaining about were it landed me," she replied.

"Good," Vegeta stated. "Because I believe I'll just keep you here... For quite some time."


End file.
